"We will display them at our store before giving our customers a sample taste," he said.

Even to the untrained eye, the super-sweet grapes -- about as large as a ping pong ball -- stand above their more affordable cousins readily available in supermarkets elsewhere in the world.

The 1.1 million-yen sale kicks off the auction season for Ruby Romans in Japan. Other fruits, from apples to watermelons, can also fetch jaw-dropping sums under the hammer.

Fruit is comparatively expensive in Japan and it is not unusual for a single apple to cost as much as $3.

The king of fruits in the country is the melon, which serves as a status symbol akin to a vintage wine, and is given as a high-ranking gift. A single pair of melons fetched $12,400 at an auction last year.